The State of Nature
by wanderlustingsouls
Summary: AU: In a world of chaos, there is only one group that can save it, and maybe fall in love along the way. Sasusaku Oneshot


**A/N:** This is my first ever story I've written on here so I hope it's okay:)

Please write a review, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated but feel free to say what's on your mind, good or bad.

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

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There was nothing left in the world but chaos. Nothing but war and poverty.

The world was without laws. There was no leader and no government to keep peace between people. Such things were merely theoretical, unknown to most people. A group formed in the midst of all the fighting. They called themselves the Akatsuki, meaning the dawn of a new age. They worked quietly in the background, never drawing too much attention to themselves. They came together for one reason, to establish a government.

My name is Sakura. I am one of the four original members of the Akatsuki. After nearly 5 years of working to build a government from scratch, we're finally nearing the end. The four of us, me, Suigetsu, Sasuke, and Karin have known each other since childhood and we share similar mindsets. We each also have our own strength that contributes greatly to the group. My specialty is my vast knowledge of medicine. Sasuke is the tactician and our leader. Suigetsu is our brute strength. Karin is our dog. Well not a dog but she is our tracker. It was her job to alert us if there was any potential threats nearby or if we needed to find someone. She also keeps a sharp eye on the time for us. For example, I had just been in the middle of cleaning my tools when Karin burst into the room.

"Hurry up and pack your stuff, we need to get moving," She barked.

With that, she swiftly walked out the door. I began to gather my supplies, sighing at the rolls of bandages that had come unrolled and now lay across the floor. I knelt down and began to retrieve the scalpels that had scampered out of my bag, accidentally cutting my hand in the process. I grimaced as the blood slowly rolled down my hand and plopped onto my bag. I quickly wrapped the cut and grabbed the remaining supplies. I walked out of the room and made my way outside. Karin was already standing there with Sasuke, impatiently tapping her foot.

"Where have you been?" Karin growled. "You know what will happen if we keep dawdling."

"I know, I was just packing everything up." I sighed, tired of the constant drilling of her annoying voice.

"Would you rather we bleed to death because our medic didn't have time to grab the bandages?" Suigetsu asked, coming out from the front door. If eyes could shoot lasers, Suigetsu would be smoking from the sheer intensity of Karin's glare.

"Hn. Let's get going," Sasuke said.

I blinked in surprise at the lack of his usual cold tone and short one worded phrases. Although he was considered the leader of our group, Sasuke was a man of few words, rarely saying more than a "ok" each day. I swung my bag over my shoulder and followed the rest of the group to the car. We drove down the road, the only sound was the crunching of gravel as the car drove past the endless fields of grass.

"Are we there yet?" Suigetsu whined, "I'm starving, and I need to stretch my legs."

"Shut up or you'll get a knuckle sandwich for lunch, that ought to fill you up right?" Karin growled.

"Yeah right, like you're strong enough to hurt me," Suigetsu retorted. The two quickly spiraled into another one of their pointless arguments.

I sighed and rummaged through my bag, only to come up with a half empty box of crackers.

"Here," I said, handing the food to Suigetsu.

"Awesome!" He exclaimed, forgetting all about his argument with Karin, "Thanks, Sakura!"

I smiled at his overly enthusiastic response and continued looking back out the window. The endless stretches of lush green hills rolled past as we sped along the road. I smiled at the blissful silence that engulfed the car, especially after the constant bickering between Karin and Suigetsu. Before long, I closed my eyes and let myself drift to sleep.

" _Hurry, we're almost there!" He cried. "Just a little bit farther."_

 _I was running through a dark alley outside, pulled along by my brother. My bare feet stung from the sharp shrapnel that dug into them with each step. I lost my balance and fell flat on my face. I was lifted into the air and carried forward. I risked a glance backwards, and caught the gleam of a gun from afar. We were nearing the gate, the cold air biting into my bare arms as I clung to my brother's shirt. I heard them close in on us, and with a click, everything went black. We were so close._

I was roused from my dream when a hand shook my shoulder roughly.

"We're here," Sasuke said, his face a blank mask, emotionless.

I opened the door and leaped down, which was a mistake. My knees buckled as my body tried to adjust to the sudden shift in movement, and the ground came rushing up. I braced myself for the sudden impact, but it never came. I was caught by Sasuke, who had moved with agility that I could barely follow with my eyes. My face grew bright red as I realized what had happened. " _Curse my clumsiness," I thought._

"Are you okay?" He asked affectionately, the usual in his voice gone. "You shouldn't have been in such a hurry."

"Yeah, you should be more careful Sakura," Suigetsu said worriedly, jogging over to help me stand.

"She's _fine_ ," Karin grumbled, "She's perfectly capable of patching herself up if she got injured."

I rolled my eyes at Karin. She had an obvious thing for Sasuke and considered him her property. Even though he didn't show the slightest interest in her, that didn't deter her the least. Although I found her futile attempts to flirt with him entertaining, I had to agree that he was possibly one of the most gorgeous people I know. I slung my fallen bag over my shoulder, and took in the surroundings. It was nearly 8 o'clock, and the sun was just starting to sink beneath the horizon. I pulled out a tent, and nearly toppled over when the car suddenly started to drive backwards.

"Hey! I'm still back here you know," I yelled, knocking on the window.

"Sorry, my bad," Karin said sweetly, her words dripping with venom. "I didn't see you."

I rolled my eyes at her childish antics. She did everything she could to make me absolutely miserable. I hefted the tent over my shoulder, and walked towards the others to start putting up my tent.

Sasuke cleared his throat to get our attention, "Tomorrow's a big day," he said, his deep voice filling the silence, "We need to be ready first thing in the morning if we want to end this." With that, he walked away and into his own tent, but not before looking back and making sure that I was okay.

I sighed, remembering the huge task at hand for tomorrow. It was our last try to either convince the remaining group of people who would greatly help in building a government to help us, or it would all end there.

After we ate dinner and put out the fire, I crawled into my tent and layed down. " _Would we be able to pull this off or would we need to fight?" I thought._ " _Would I be able to take care of the injured or would my skill not be enough?"_ I shook my head and tried to wipe the thoughts from my mind. Getting no sleep wouldn't help me anymore than worrying would. I closed my eyes and let my mind drift off into my memories.

 _I woke up to the feeling of water dripping onto my arm. I felt the blindfold wrapped around my eyes, preventing me from opening them. My arms were tied together and I couldn't shake the grogginess from my mind. The last thing I remembered was being dragged away from my brother and a sharp pain stabbing into my neck. The door opened. The sound of shuffling feet filled the room as the door was shut with thud._

" _You see your precious little sister?" a gruff voice said, "As long as you cooperate, nothing will happen to her. I would hate to see her with a broken arm, or maybe two broken legs," he mused._

" _Let her go," a voice rasped. "She doesn't know anything about it."_

 _I recognized the voice. It was my brother._

" _Akio whats happening?" I whispered, my voice hoarse._

" _Looky here she's awake," the voice drawled. "This way, she can feel the full extent of what I'll do to her if you don't cooperate."_

 _I heard the sound of shuffling. He was looking for something. Footsteps thudded against the floor, coming closer and closer. I felt a burning sensation against my cheek, and felt something wet drip down my face. My blood._

" _Stop! Please don't hurt her," Akio begged._

 _The burning stopped. "Will you cooperate?" the voice asked._

 _Before he could respond, the door burst open and I felt myself thrown back, my head cracking against the wall. I felt myself slip away, just as a pair of strong hands wrapped around me and pulled me to safety._

I woke up covered in a thin layer of sweat from the vivid dream. I pulled on a jacket and pushed through the tent flap. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon, its faint light glinting off of the dew drops on the grass. It seemed that no one else was up yet, so I sat down on the log, and looked up at the sky. How would today play out?

I jumped when a voice suddenly called out, "Watcha lookin at?"

"Goddamnit Suigetsu, don't sneak up on me like that," I growled at the blond.

"Sorry Sakura, didn't mean to," he said with a mischievous smile.

I heard the sound of a zipper and turned around to see Karin crawling out of her tent. Well there goes the peace and quiet.

"Well looks like everyones finally up," Suigetsu said cheerfully. "Let's get this show on the road!"

"Wait where's Sasuke?" Karin asked, looking around worriedly.

"Relax Karin, he just went ahead to check out a few things," Suigetsu sighed.

"When are we supposed to go?" I asked, anxious to get a move on.

"Right now," Sasuke said, emerging from the trees.

We followed him through the thick forest, until we reached a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

"Is this the place?" Karin asked, her face twisted in a look of disgust. "It looks a cabin where kidnappers hide their victims."

"Stop being such a baby," I groaned, rolling my eyes.

"It's just… so gross," Karin whined.

"Stop arguing and hurry up Karin," Suigetsu yelled. Then in a much nicer tone, he called, "C'mon Sakura it's almost time."

I quickly jogged over to the front of the cabin where Suigetsu and Sasuke were already waiting.

"Do we go in?" I asked.

"Not yet," Sasuke replied in a cool voice. The door suddenly creaked open, revealing a dimly lit table with six people I have never seen before.

"Now we go in," Sasuke said.

We sat on the remaining four seats left at the table. I scanned the faces of the strangers sitting around me, engraving each one into my mind. When I looked across, I started into a pair of cold black eyes. I felt a chill race down my spine as those emotionless eyes seemed to stare into my soul.

"Alright let's get started," a middle aged pudgy man announced. "What reason will you give us that will convince our group to help you?"

"As you surely know, the world is filled with hate and violence. The only sure way to remedy that is to create a sort of system that will give the order and peace that our world desperately needs." Sasuke stated. "We are trying to create that, and this system is made up of a group of people called a government." He then reached into his bag to pull out a thick booklet of information, our information that took three years to collect and another two years to put together. "Here is the schematics that we have drawn out for the govern―"

He was cut off when a deafening blast exploded from under us. All ten people in the cabin were flung to the sides as the cabin fell apart from the sheer force of the bomb. I landed on my back and looked up just in time to see part of the roof hurtling towards me. I closed my eyes and brace for the impact, but it never came. I opened them to see Sasuke's face looking down on me. He had pulled me aside just in time before I was squashed by the wood.

"Thanks," I manage, sitting down as I try to process what was all happening. I came to one conclusion. "Sasuke, we have a traitor among us."

"I know," he said grimly. "I have a hunch that there's actually two.

I looked up at him in surprise, "Two?"

Just then, a figure hurtled towards us. It was Suigetsu.

"Suigetsu!" I exclaimed, relieved to see him uninjured. He only started at me, his eyes lacking that usual sparkle. "Suigetsu? Are you okay?" I asked, starting to walk towards him. I was stopped when a hand pulled me back. "Sasuke I need to make sure he's okay." I said, annoyed that he didn't seem to care about Suigetsu's wellbeing.

"No. He is the traitor," Sasuke said coldly, never taking his eyes off Suigetsu.

I looked at Suigetsu in confusion, only to see a smirk slide onto his face.

"How long have you known?" he asked, eyes glinting with malicious glee.

"Since you've been mysteriously slipping out at three in the morning," Sasuke replied coolly.

 _"Like this morning when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere," I thought as the realization dawned on me._

Another figure suddenly emerged from the wreckage. He lifted his head and I stared into those same merciless eyes from earlier in the cabin.

"Suigetsu this is taking awhile," he called out in a bored voice. "I already took care of that redhead girl from your group and I haven't found anyone else."

"Thank god Karin was driving me crazy. That was really helpful bored," Suigetsu said. "Just gotta take care of these two now." He advanced, slowly closing the distance between us when something caught my eye behind him. Suddenly, almost too fast for me to catch, a silver streak flew behind Suigetsu and landed straight into Juugo's neck.

"What the―" he fell to his knees and his hands clawed at his neck, trying to locate the weapon. He sank to his knees, movements getting sluggish and fell to the ground.

"Who's there?" Suigetsu yelled, turning around.

Sasuke smirked, "It's about time Itachi. I see that poison has been developing nicely."

"...Itachi," I mumbled to myself. "Itachi!" I called out, trying to locate the person as I recognised the name.

One person emerged from the direction the weapon had flew from. Itachi Uchiha. Suigetsu's eyes widened in shock at the sight of the famous assassin. He slowly started backing away.

"Don't worry you two, you'll have your chance to join Karin," he said. With that, he dashed into the forest. Itachi walked over and surveyed the damage.

"I'll go look for survivors, you guys stay here," he ordered and promptly walked away.

I stared after him and turned back to Sasuke. "Sasuke…" I began but he turned to face me.

"Sakura, it's up to us to finish building the government," he stated solemnly. He extended his hand towards me, "Let's rebuild the world... together."

I looked at him, and slowly smiled. Reaching up, I grabbed his hand, "Let's do this."


End file.
